About Charlie

I am writing to tell you about a sweet pit bull named Charlie. We think someone dumped her near our home in rural Clay County. We found her on 9/29/17 on the road near our house. I had driven by 3 times and she was there near the road. The third time, I stopped. She was very shy at first but eventually came to me and drank some water out of my hand from a water bottle I had in the car. I took a picture and posted it on our neighborhood Facebook page. But no one knew anything about her. I went out again that afternoon with some food and water. She was still there and was hungry and thirsty. I felt sorry for her and decided to take her up to our house to figure out what to do with her. I took her to Long's Veterinary hospital that night to see if she had any obvious illnesses as we have other dogs. She seemed fine. So we took her back home. I posted another Facebook photo asking for folks to share to help us find her owners. I also called Watkins Mill to see if a camper lost a dog. No luck. So, the next week, I took her in to get her full set of shots as it seemed she would be with us, at least for a while. I checked with kc pet rescue and they could not take her as she was not found in kc. We do not live in city limits. So, Kearney animal control was not an option either. I did not want to take her to a 'kill'shelter like Wayside Waifs. Charlie makes dog #5 for us. We have two outside dogs and two other inside dogs...both pit bull rescues. We also have 30+ chickens. Everything seemed fine for the first 6 weeks and we settled into a routine. Then, the Friday after Thanksgiving, things started going downhill where Charlie is concerned. Charlie bit our 12-year old daughter and then my husband within 1 week. Both incidents occurred when they were carrying chickens and I feel confident she was trying to bite the chickens, not humans. However, this was still very concerning. But we decided we just needed to keep her away from chickens. All was good for 1week. Then she got into a fight in the middle of our living room with our other pit bull Sampson and bit him on the leg. She just would not stop biting at him. So, our older daughter's boyfriend and my husband had to physically separate them. Thankfully, no humans got bit this time. But it was a very scary experience. We have come to the point that we have decided we cannot keep Charlie. This has been a very difficult decision. But, I think our situation with other pets/animals just does not mesh with Charlie's disposition. As I understand it, no shelters will take her due to a biting history. I would like to re-home her. But only with an owner who understands she may have certain triggers for aggression and can avoid these (no chickens or other pets). I would also suggest she not be in a home with children either as that is one of my main concerns with keeping her in our home. As of today, she is being boarded. But we cannot afford to do this much longer and she cannot come back to our home. I am hoping you can offer advice or assistance as we are distraught to think that a sweet dog like Charlie may have to be euthanized because she does work with our home environment....we don't know what else to do if no one will take her.

Clay County
Kearney, Missouri